Edit:
As specified by Ryan Long this version accounts for multiple values of the same key, which is useful if you want to parse arrays too.
Edit 2:
As Ben points out, this may not handle arrays well when they are formatted with ruby on rails style array notation.
The rails style array notation is: foo[]=bar&foo[]=nop. That style is indeed handled correctly with Julik's response.
This version will only parse arrays correctly, if you have the params like foo=bar&foo=nop.
If you are on older Rails, you can indeed use CGI::parse. Note that handling of hashes and arrays differs in subtle ways between modules so you need to verify whether the data you are getting is correct for the method you choose.
You can also include Rack::Utils into your class for shorthand access.
Edit : as said in the comments, symolizing keys can bring your server down if someone want to hurt you. I still do it a lot when I work on low profile apps because it makes things easier to work with but I wouldn't do it anymore for high stake apps
Do not forget to symbolize the keys for obtaining the result you want